Sugar to Sweeten the Soul
by Hexes and Hijinks
Summary: These monsters... sure couldn't take a hit like the ones she was used to fighting.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Bubbles woke up on a bed of roses.

Except she found herself resting on golden flowers that most certainly were not roses.

She sat up slowly, aching for reasons currently unknown, and looked around at the garden she was sitting in, confusion clouding her mind and slowing her processing. She took in the way the flowers were getting crushed beneath her and felt a pang of guilt that had her quickly crawling out of the garden she may have inadvertently ruined.

"Sorry," Bubbles squeaked to no one, the word hanging loosely in the empty room. She reached for the flowers, attempting to sit them upright, admiring how pretty they were.

With very little effort on her part, the flowers straightened once more, stems stiffening and petals popping back up like they hadn't been suffering beneath her weight. Bubbles sighed in relief. She patted the soil that held the flowers gently, congratulating the flowers on their job well done while simultaneously expressing her gratitude.

Her attention was diverted into examining the rest of the room, bare and dark save for the spot that illuminated flowers. Searching for a light source, Bubbles looked up... and up... and up...

The walls went up forever, reaching into the sky that was so far away from her place on the ground, quickly turning a dark shade of blue as sunlight began to fade, and memory of what happened came back to her abruptly.

Bubbles jumped to her feet with new awareness, fingers brushing along the cuts on her arms, her cheeks, the one down her lip. Her gaze continued down her scruffy lime green t-shirt, now a few crudely placed letters short of spelling _Camp Echo Crest_ across the front. Passed her jean skirt, she saw her scraped knees, and noticed, much to her dismay, that she was missing a sneaker.

She'd fallen.

She'd fallen down a _mountain_.

She'd fallen _into_ a mountain.

Which was quite the feat considering how she could fly.

Bubbles ran her tongue across her split bottom lip, feeling her eyes begin to prick with tears as she tried to recall. _When? How?_

There were blanks that popped up in her memory between the time she was spending with her sisters at Camp Echo Crest, exploring the surrounding woods, touring the nearby town to the moment where she stood now.

Bubbles crouched down, getting ready to dart herself out of the mountain, deciding to deal with the problem once she was out of thick of it.

She leaped, feeling her feet leave the ground... and immediately reconnect. She stumbled forward on wobbly legs and windmilled her arms to balance it. She fell regardless.

Looking up, Bubbles felt dread curling in her stomach alongside the hint of nausea and beginnings of exhaustion, recent recollection flashing through her mind.

There... there was _something_ at the top of the mountain, something that had prevented her from leaving. No matter what beams she had blasted out, or punches and kicks she threw, each had proved ineffective against the invisible barrier. The worst results coming from when she had tried flying straight into it with all of her might.

During the moment of collision, there had been a brief moment that felt like time had completely stopped. Her body felt jolted, the barrier seemingly holding a grip on her and _taking,_ until she finally rebounded off of it, being spat back into the caverns below and losing consciousness in the process.

Bubbles sniffled and brought her hands up to cup around her mouth. She redirected her face back up towards the darkening sky, screaming loudly, hoping that the sound would reach her sisters.

Instead of the expected super sonic, her voice came out in a pathetic croak, barely making its way up from the confines of her throat.

She tried again, tears gathering in her eyes as she received the same results and fully absorbed her situation.

She was stuck in a mountain _alone_ and her powers acting wacky. It was dark and she was scared and _what was she going to do?_ She could _rot_ here all because she had wanted to... to...

 _'To what?'_

Bubbles hiccuped and roughly wiped at the tears now staining her cheeks and stinging her cuts, partly out of frustration and partly out of hysteria.

"I-I-I don't wanna b-be heeeeeeree!"

"What's w-wrong w-with meeeee!"

"Where's m-my shoe!" Here, her voice broke, and she slammed her fists down to the ground to drive her frustration home.

The sound resonated around her, emphasizing how empty it was down there and how alone she was... or how alone she thought she was.

Bubbles's sobbing immediately halted and she frantically looked around her dark surroundings, suddenly feeling as though she were being watched from the shadows.

"Hello?" she called out tentatively, sincerely hoping no one answered (because who else would be down in a _mountain_?), afraid that maybe the owner of the golden garden had seen her crush it after all-

 _'The golden garden!'_

'... _Why is there a garden down here?'_

 _'No, not the point!'_ Bubbles shook here head, eyes widening with hope. The owner had be near! Maybe she could get some help!

Bubbles squealed, jumping to her feet, quickly feeling disoriented once she did so. She brought a hand up to her head, exhaling tiredly, and looked to up towards the opening with narrowed eyes. ' _What's right there?'_

With slowed movements, Bubbles reluctantly made her way into the dark.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

There was a frog staring at her, a rather large frog that Bubbles was a bit nervous to try and pass.

She came across it after walking a few rooms deeper into the mountain. She hadn't been forced to stay in the darkness for much longer after she had decided to get on the move, thankfully, and it had been washed away abruptly by the sudden appearance of bright lights that revealed architecture that surprised her with its purple walls and floors, stairways, and water channels. Bubbles wondered how far it all extended and for what person.

She had been making her way along in a slow, steady pace with frequent breaks to catch her breath, heavy panting and aching muscles turning her movements sluggish, her feet dragging across the floor in protest against her will to move forward. Just a room back during one of her many breaks, she had leaned against a rather randomly placed dummy for support. Its presence had given her a strange sense of comfort.

It had been a short-lived comfort as she immediately came across the mega frog with the creepy eyes.

Bubbles glanced behind her, once again making sure that it was her the frog was actually staring at. She moved a little to the left and the eyes stayed trained on her.

Why was it looking at her like that?! It was so _rude_!

"Ah... um..." Her voice sounded as nervous as she felt, overpowering any indignation she felt with a tremble. It wasn't like the frog was actually doing anything to her, right? Maybe it still wouldn't try to do anything if she tried to pass. She didn't have to actually confront it.

Her attention drifted back to the frog and it continued to stare back at her impassively, never having moved one inch.

With one quick nod of satisfaction, Bubbles took a step forward.

The frog didn't move.

Throwing a wary smile towards the frog, Bubbles took another step forward, smile growing wider as she continued passed it. The frog's eyes followed her, but still, it didn't move towards her.

Regaining some vitality, Bubbles gave a little wave to the frog as goodbye, a small motion of her fingers dancing in the air, and she spun on her heels to leave.

A few steps down the hall, she came across a floor of spikes.

"Oh, _really_?"

To the owner's credit, it wasn't just a floor of spikes. It was a floor of spikes on water.

Bubbles sighed, looking around the room for a switch to pull as she had done in a room before. She wondered about the use for a floor of spikes.

 _'It's to keep trespassers out,'_ a voice spoke in her head. It sounded suspiciously like Blossom.

"I'm not trespassing," Bubbles spoke absently, hands running along the walls for a switch when she didn't immediately spot one. "I'm looking for help after I was _trapped_ down here."

She backed away from the wall, going back to the bridge approaching the spikes. She paid no mind to the sudden dampness her foot with the missing shoe felt, sock soaking up the water scattered across the bridge. She was too busy looking at the air forlornly, thinking of how easy it should have been to fly across. Then again, she still hadn't tried to after her first attempt. Maybe she could now…?

In another moment of decisiveness, Bubbles took a step back, then turned around to continue the distance she would use for a running start.

 _"Ribbit, ribbit."_

There was a mega frog staring at her with creepy eyes right from the toes of her feet.

Bubbles screeched and stumbled back, slipping on the wet ground beneath her. Her arms reached out for balance and her hands grabbed at nothing but air. Time seemed to slow for Bubbles as her body continued its backwards descent to where she knew the spikes were.

She didn't even have time to screw her eyes shut.

"Oomph."

Bubbles exhaled loudly, the air knocked out of her. She stared up with wide eyes in a daze.

"Huh?"

Her hands roamed around the area around her, searching for spikes that should have been there but finding none. She pressed her hands to the her chest, her stomach, certain that she should have been impaled.

"What?"

It was much easier to come to her senses this time around, and Bubbles sat up, looking at the spot where the spikes had slid into the metal.

Looking up to where the rest of the spikes should be, she found that they still were there.

"Ribbit, ribbit."

Without thought, Bubbles found herself scrambling away again, a sharp whoosh following her movements. Glancing behind her, she saw that the spikes behind her that had originally been there were now gone too.

"R-"

"Don't _do_ that!" Bubbles cried, attention immediately diverted back to the frog. "You scared me! I mean, uh, you scared me before, but this time _you scared_ me!" She placed a hand over her racing heart. "Please don't sneak up on me like that again."

It was almost funny how now that she was actually talking to the frog, it was now staring right passed her. The frog hopped forward, not even acknowledging Bubbles as it continued on down a path across the floor of spikes, each spike sliding down as it hopped forward.

For a moment, Bubbles sat, confused, staring after the figure of the hopping frog.

Then, she hurried to her feet, rushing to follow after it.

"Wait for me!"


End file.
